In the wake of the War with Mexico, the United States grew by a third as it took in new territories making up all or parts of the present states of Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, and California, spoils of Manifest Destiny.

The insatiable American appetite for new land, so apparent in the 19th century, provides the subtext for Antonia Bird’s curious 1999 film Ravenous. In it, a psychologically shattered soldier, played by the Australian actor Guy Pearce, receives a posting following that war to a remote fort high in the Sierra Nevada of California; the post is a reward, in a backhanded way, for a bit of battlefield self-interest during the war. (Says the commander to the young captain, “What did you get the medal for?” to which he replies, “Cowardice.”)

Soon after, the quiet of the place is broken when a wild-eyed fellow played by the Scottish actor Robert Carlyle, excellent as always, bursts in to tell an eldritch tale of cannibalism in a nearby pass, a story borrowed from the real-life misadventures of the Donner Party.

All is not as it seems, though, and soon, one by one, the denizens of the fort begin to disappear, provender for a carnivore’s larder. Meanwhile, says Carlyle’s character, one Colonel Ives, to Captain Boyd, “Manifest destiny. You know, come April, thousands of gold-hungry Americans will over those mountains, on their way to new lives, passing right through here.” In short, the weatherbeaten fort is an ideal headquarters for a flesh-eater of the sort whom the Indians of the region call Windigo.

It’s a curious film, not much seen on its release, but well worth a viewing. Just make sure not to screen it too close to suppertime.